As health care costs continue to rise, it becomes increasingly desirable to minimize the length of time patients must be hospitalized while still ensuring that they receive the appropriate degree of care. Many standard treatment protocols require patients to undergo continual testing and monitoring that may diagnose medical problems and emergencies. For example, many patients with heart problems require stress testing and monitoring. However, to reduce costs, it is desirable to conduct such testing and monitoring in facilities that lack physicians or equipment to perform emergency medical services should the patient experience a medical event, such as a heart attack or stroke. Such testing could be performed in hospitals, however, doing so reduces the number of suitable testing facilities and requires increased patient travel. In addition, outside of hospital facilities many of the personnel who perform such outpatient testing lack the diagnostic skills to determine if a patient is experiencing a medical event requiring treatment and may not be present with the patient when an event occurs. Thus, a remotely located technologist and/or physician is required to determine whether the patient needs treatment, and if so, identify a suitable treatment facility.
In one scenario, it would be desirable to provide patients with physiologic testing devices that monitor their condition and which alert medical personnel to a possible medical event. Some devices that are capable of wirelessly transmitting patient physiologic data to a remote server, such as via the internet, exist. However, even though the server may be programmed to determine if such data is indicative of a medical event, there is no reliable way for remote medical personnel to select a suitable treatment facility and contact the public safety access point (PSAP) in the patient's geographic location to dispatch first responders to the patient's specific location. In addition, if the patient is unconscious or unable to communicate, his or her geographic location may be difficult to ascertain. In certain situations, a cellular telephone in the patient's possession or near the patient may be used to determine the patient's location for purposes of dispatching medical personnel. However, such devices are typically accurate to within 300 meters, a level of accuracy which is typically not sufficient reliable to ensure that first responders can quickly locate the patient. Thus, a need has arisen for an improved patient emergency response system.